More and more devices are being replaced with autonomous and semiautonomous electronic devices. This is especially true in the hospitals of today with large arrays of autonomous and semiautonomous electronic devices being found in operating rooms, interventional suites, intensive care wards, emergency rooms, and/or the like. For example, glass and mercury thermometers are being replaced with electronic thermometers, intravenous drip lines now include electronic monitors and flow regulators, and traditional hand-held surgical instruments are being replaced by computer-assisted medical devices.
These electronic devices provide both advantages and challenges to the personnel operating them. Many of these electronic devices may be capable of autonomous or semiautonomous motion of one or more articulated arms and/or end effectors. It is also common to operate the electronic devices via teleoperation using one or more input controls on an operator workstation to control the motion and/or operation of the articulated arms and/or the end effectors. When the electronic device is operated remotely from the operator workstation and/or the end effectors are being used in an area not directly visible to the operator, such as during computer-assisted surgery when the end effectors are hidden by patient anatomy, the electronic device may include an imaging device that captures a region of interest and displays it to the operator using a display system. As the operator controls the articulated arms and/or the end effectors, the operator generally tries to keep the end effectors in sight of the imaging device so that the operation of the end effectors may be observed on the display system. In addition, the positions and orientations of the input controls are typically matched to the end effectors so that as the input controls are moved, the end effectors “follow” those moves.
As the imaging device and/or the end effectors are moved, it is possible that the operator may lose sight of one or more of the end effectors and/or lose track of the spatial relationships between the imaging device and the end effectors. This may further be complicated when the operator of the electronic device switches control to additional articulated arms and/or end effectors that may be parked in other areas around the region of interest and/or when the end effectors are partially or totally occluded by other objects in the region of interest. To reacquire visualization of the end effectors (i.e., to place the end effectors within the view volume of the imaging device), the operator may have to perform a series of recentering movements with the imaging device to find a suitable pose (position and orientation) of the imaging device that includes the end effectors. This series of movements may become cumbersome, prolonged and/or impractical.
In addition, as the imaging device is moved and/or the input controls are switched to the additional articulated arms and/or end effectors, the spatial orientations between the imaging device and the end effectors may be changed. This may result in disharmony between the positions and/or orientations of the end effectors as displayed by the display system and the corresponding positions and/or orientations of the input controls for those end effectors. In some cases this may be corrected by the operator by activating a clutch for the input controls and then repositioning and/or reorienting the input controls to match the end effector positions and/or orientations as shown on the display system. As with the movements of the imaging device, these repositioning and/or reorienting operations may also become cumbersome, prolonged and/or impractical.
Accordingly, improved methods and systems for visually reacquiring end effectors and/or repositioning and/or reorienting input controls to match the end effectors are desirable.